Faster than a speeding train, number of Amtrak riders soars in Flint

FLINT, Michigan -- Dennis Jefferson noticed something on his Amtrak trip from Charleston, Miss., to Flint this week: There's a lot less elbow room and a lot more people on the train than there were just six months ago.

Fueled by higher gas prices and what state transportation officials say is greater awareness, the number of Amtrak riders has exploded on the Blue Water route that runs from Port Huron to Chicago and stops daily in Flint.

Ryan Garza | The Flint JournalPassengers prepare to board the Amtrak Blue Water route on Wednesday at the Flint rail station on Dort Highway. Amtrak's Blue Water service that stops in Flint has been soaring, up by 26.2 percent in the first six months of its fiscal year.

The increase in passenger traffic on the route during the last six months -- 26.2 percent -- is among the highest in the nation, and gains at the Flint station -- 34.7 percent -- are even higher during that same period.

"It was packed on that train," said Jefferson, 51, who found his first Amtrak trip cheaper and easier than any alternative.

"This was my first time, but I'm going to use it again," he said.

A Michigan Department of Transportation spokeswoman said what's happening with higher ridership in Flint is happening elsewhere in Michigan -- even though the surge hasn't been as steep as here.

Michigan's two other Amtrak routes have also posted gains during the past six months, up 6.7 percent on the Pere Marquette service between Grand Rapid and Chicago and 16.3 percent on the Wolverine service from Pontiac/Detroit to Chicago.

The Blue Water stops twice daily in Flint, arriving from Chicago at 10:40 p.m. and departing for Chicago at 7:11 a.m.

"Gasoline prices are having an effect (but) it's clearly not the whole story," said Janet Foran, an MDOT spokeswoman. "People are choosing train travel because they have determined it's a good overall value.

"If you're a business traveler, you can relax and" get to your destination, said Foran, who believes increased coverage of the high-speed rail issue and a marketing campaign that's promoting the route through radio, billboards and brochures are both helping too.

"There's been so much discussion about high speed rail ... there are new opportunities to read about (train travel)," she said. "People like options."

The more they think -- particularly with the price of gasoline teetering nearly $4 per gallon -- the more they have come.

Mary Nichols, a Saginaw native who now lives in Carbondale, Ill., said riding the train is a dollars and cents decision.

"The price of gasoline has went up so high, it's cheaper to take the train," said Nichols, 49, as she waited for family members from Saginaw to pick her up from the Flint station on Tuesday night.

Flint native Michelle Krueger, 34, also uses the train comes back to visit.

The Milwaukee resident said she regularly takes Amtrak through Chicago to come back home.

"This is a good way of coming back to visit my parents," she said. "It's a lot more convenient than trying to drive.

"And he loves trains," she said, pointing to her 4-year-old son Paul, who was still jumping with excitement and pointing to the car they'd just stepped out of.

"He loves making friends on the trains."

Krueger said she's noticed more passengers filling up the trains since she's been riding them over the past five years, many of them traveling between Flint and Chicago.